BREAKING: Trump turns Kennedy Center Honors he MC’d into ratings DUMPSTER FIRE as viewers flee in record numbers. Anyone who has paid attention to Donald Trump since he entered the political scene knows that his ultimate measure of his own self-worth is directly tied to his perceived popularity, particularly when it comes to the television ratings he has been able to generate — perhaps a lingering artifact from his days as host of Celebrity Apprentice. You can only imagine the ketchup-splattered state of the walls of his Mar-a-Lago suite after he learned of the ratings brought in by his side hustle hosting the Kennedy Center Honors, which was broadcast on CBS last night. Trump’s hosting stint promptly drove the Honors into what looks like the lowest-rated broadcast in the show’s history. According to early Nielsen data, the CBS airing of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors pulled in just 2.65 to 3 million viewers, a staggering collapse from last year’s already-low 4.1 million. That’s a 35% year-over-year ratings implosion, and a jaw-dropping fall from the 5.3 million viewers the event attracted just three years ago. For a president who famously obsesses over ratings, this one had to sting. Trump was the first sitting president to ever take over the ceremony, a historic and much-anticipated event, at least for his MAGA faithful. All the other viewers, however, apparently responded with a mass exodus. TV analyst Joe Adalian called the broadcast a full-blown disaster, noting that even with generous adjustments, the show barely limped into the mid–3 million range — and was reportedly losing to reruns. In key demographics, the collapse was even more brutal, with ratings roughly half of last year’s. The optics of the program didn’t help. Trump delivered pre-taped introductions from behind his Oval Office desk, dressed casually, in what critics described as a stiff, awkward performance that drained the night of its usual warmth and prestige. One entertainment reporter quipped that it looked less like a celebration of American culture and more like a low-energy campaign ad nobody asked for. Meanwhile, social media lit up with boycott calls. Viewers openly urged others to skip the broadcast to “drive Trump nuts with bad ratings.” Many happily complied. “I’d rather stick a hot poker in both eyes than watch this,” one commenter wrote. Others vowed never to tune in to CBS again as long as Trump is associated with the Kennedy Center. The irony? The honorees — George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and Sylvester Stallone — should have been the stars. Instead, the night became a referendum on Trump himself, and the verdict was brutal. For decades, presidents attended the Kennedy Center Honors quietly, respecting its nonpartisan tradition. Trump shattered that norm — and viewers punished the show accordingly. In the end, Trump may have “hosted” the Kennedy Center Honors, but America changed the channel. Given Trump’s record lows in opinion polls about his performance as president, it’s hard to imagine how anyone ever thought he would help bring eyeballs to this formerly prestigious annual broadcast. It’s hard to blame CBS for the ratings disaster, however, when Trump railroaded the Kennedy Center Board — one that was stacked with his hand-picked cronies after the prior board members either resigned or were fired — to appoint himself as the host. Perhaps Trump will finally realize that his star turn is more like a meteorite falling to earth and burning up in the atmosphere. He hasn’t been able to handle his main job competently, so the failure of his part-time gig should come as no surprise.